If you favored the Regional Transit Authority millage, you saw a big step towards the connected, regional transportation system that’s never existed in Southeast Michigan.

If you opposed it, you saw a tax hike for services you likely don’t need or care about.

The opposition won. Southeast Michigan voters said “no” to the RTA millage.

Megan Owens of Transportation Riders United spoke with us today.

Owens told us she wasn't overly surprised at how counties in the region voted.

"Washtenaw County supported it, Oakland and Wayne counties were roughly split … and Macomb County opposed it. When push came to shove, that’s where all of the counties were heading,” she said.

“I think there’s still a lot of questions about where we go from here,” Owens told us. “What we need to do is look at how do we both develop a plan where people can see and understand their benefit, whether they’re in Macomb County or anywhere else in the region, and make sure … we can come up with something that works better for more people to understand.”

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A millage proposal to fund transit improvements has failed in Metro Detroit.

It would have allowed the Southeast Michigan Regional Transit Authority to implement an ambitious transit master plan, upgrading the historically dismal and fragmented transit systems in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and Washtenaw counties.

The millage would have raised about $3 billion over 20 years to build bus rapid transit systems, bolster and better connect existing bus lines, provide transit connections to Detroit Metro Airport, and other services.

Voters in four Southeast Michigan counties will decide on November 8 whether to raise property taxes to enhance mass transit systems in the region.

The ballot proposal would authorize the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan to levy a new 1.2 mill tax for 20 years in Macomb, Oakland, Wayne, and Washtenaw counties. That would mean about $120 a year for the owner of a $200,000 house.

After a long, grueling campaign season, Election Day is only 20 days away. This Week in Michigan Politics, Jack Lessenberry and Doug Tribou look at ballot battles in southeast Michigan, including an unusual situation in Macomb County, where a Clinton Township Trustee who's running for supervisor is facing bribery charges.